Am I missing anything in this conversion that shouldn't work, or someplace I should tweak? (Was thinking maybe a little more 10L, to get over 5 SRM, and into the American Pale Ale style?)

Here's the recipe scaled for 3.5 gallons. It's for 70% efficiency - I check pre-boil gravity and remove some wort/replace with water if the mash efficiency is high. I'd use 75% next time (multiply my grain weights by 0.9333), no change to hops, maybe 154F mash.

Everything went really well, but I have a few questions if anyone can help me.

1) The dough-in water specified is 11 liters. When I put 11 liters into the grains it barely made the the grains damp - landed up with about 16 liters.

2) My OG came out at 1,059, not the 1.050 as per recipe. This seems a little high ? Maybe I miss measured the grains which could explain the extra dough - in water required as well as the higher OG.

3) Finally, when it came to aerating the wort, the aquarium pump would not work so I shook the fermenter quite violently for about 5 minutes. Can I re-aerate the wort with a new aeration pump tonight or will this result in off flavours ? It is bubbling away quite nicely as we speak but I'm scared that it will use up all the available oxygen too quickly and spot fermenting.

So after 4 months in the bottle I just cracked one open and find zero hops aroma and minimal flavor. As this was my first Pale Ale (or IPA), is this normal after 4 months?

Thanks!

Not normal imo. What was the OG and FG? I made an extract version last year with extra extract and it wasn't great but definitely drinkable. I plan to do an all grain version next exactly as written in the OP.

Not normal imo. What was the OG and FG? I made an extract version last year with extra extract and it wasn't great but definitely drinkable. I plan to do an all grain version next exactly as written in the OP.

Not normal imo. What was the OG and FG? I made an extract version last year with extra extract and it wasn't great but definitely drinkable. I plan to do an all grain version next exactly as written in the OP.

I agree that it's not normal. I have a batch made on 17-Sept (about 3 months) that is great or better than at two months.